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JAYALGER’S WEEKLY BEAR TRAP
“Golf is like a love affair. If you don’t take it seriously, It’s no fun; If you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart.” - Arthur Daley
PREVIEW AND PICKS FOR THE MEMORIAL 2019
The Course - Muirfield Village Golf Club
The PGA Tour moves out of Texas to the course that Jack built in 1974, Muirfield Village Golf Club. Muirfield Village is located in Dublin, Ohio just north of Columbus. The course is a beautiful, well-manicured par-72 measuring 7,392 yards with four par 3s and four par 5s.
Hole breakdown is as follows:
| Par 3 | 4 |
| Par 4 <400 | 1 |
| Par 4 400-450 | 3 |
| Par 4 450-500 | 6 |
| Par 4 >500 | 0 |
| Par 5 | 4 |
| Total | 18 |
Course Data (2018)
Course Data by Par (2018)
Course Stats
- Par 72
- 7,392 yards
- Architect(s) - Jack Nicholas (1974}
- Greens - 5000 sq. ft. (Small), Bent/poa (Stimpmeter - 13+, lightning)
- GIR - ~62%, difficult to hit
- Tees, Fairways - Bent/poa
- Hitting fairways - ~69%, easy to hit
- Rough - Bluegrass/ryegrass/fescue (Long and difficult)
- Difficulty (-0.604 RTP, Ranked 30th of 50 courses played in 2018), average; +0.797 RTP, Ranked 13th of 50 courses played in 2017), difficult
- Sand Bunkers - 73
- Water Hazard - 13 (in play on 9 holes)
- Fairways of holes 9, 14 and 18 have been narrowed at landing areas of about 6-8 yards since last year
Observed Stat Trends
- Last year the course played -0.604 strokes RTP, average
- The par 5s which were some of the easiest holes on the course. Together they combined for -1.198 strokes RTP and an average Birdie rate of 39.91%. 35 of the 39 eagles scored last year were obtained on the par 5s.
- Hole 14 is the only hole under 400 yards. It played -0.025 RTP.
- The toughest hole on the course is also the closing hole measuring 484 yards. It played +.211 RTP.
- The rest of the par 4s played for a combined +0.153 RTP.
- All of the par 3s played over par combining for +0.356 RTP.
Brief Tournament Information
- Invitational with about 120 golfers
- Field Strength - Strong
- Standard cut of 70 plus ties (2014-2018, Avg +1)
- 2018 - (+1)
- 2017 - (+4)
- 2016 - (-1)
- 2015 - (E)
- 2014 - (+1)
- Winners (2014-2018, Avg -14.2)
- 2018 - Bryson DeChambeau (-15) by playoff over Byeong Hun An & Kyle Stanley
- 2017 - Jason Dufner (-13)
- 2016 - William McGirt (-15) by playoff over Jon Curran
- 2015 - David Lingmerth (-15) by playoff over Justin Rose
- 2014 - Hideki Matsuyama (-13) by playoff over Kevin Na
DK Data 2018
- Avg Cash Line (GPP - 505.97, AVR 10.12; Cash - 524.50, AVR 10.49)
- Winning LUs
- 7.5k Qtr Jukebox - 622 DK Pts @ 49.9k (AVR 12.46)
- 30k Albatross ($12 Buy-in, SE) - 628.0 DK Pts @ 50.0k (AVR 12.56)
- 15k Dogleg ($33, ME) - 618.0 DK Pts @ 50.0k (AVR 12.36)
- $5 SE Double Up - Cashline, 471 (AVR 9.42)
- $5 ME Double Up - Cashline, 492.5 (AVR 9.85)
- Breakdown by Salary
Quotes from Golfers about the Course
- Kyle Stanley, 2018 - “The rough’s really thick and pretty high and every time I’ve been in it this week, three or four times we pretty much just had to pitch out. So I think the key is just hit a lot of fairways and try to hit your second shots out of the fairway.”
- Rory Sabbatini, 2018 - “Yeah, there’s a premium of putting the ball in the fairway this week. I’ve been pretty successful for two days of doing that and the rough is quite brutal.”
- Justin Rose, 2018 - “It’s a second shot golf course, it suits my iron play.”
- J.B. Holmes, 2018 - “You got to be in the fairway. You’re not scoring out of the rough out here, it’s so thick. It’s almost a penalty.”
- Jamie Lovemark, 2017 - “You have to be conservative off the tee. The fairways are pretty wide. But the greens are so fast and slippery that if you short side yourself you have no chance.”
THE CHART
I’ve decided to change up the format of my favorite picks from my player pool into chart format to make it easier to get my article out quickly and allow readers to see my recommendations quickly.
Anyway, I hope that this helps you in your own process to select your golfers for this week. Please leave me any questions, comments, suggestions or any rants and touts you would like to discuss either here on Vicehood.com, on twitter @algertorr, or on DK/FD/FDR jayalger. Good luck this week!